Books

Total Recall

by Paretsky, Sara (2001); Published by New York: Delacorte Press

Lotty was a girl of nine when she emigrated from Austria to England, one of a group of children wrenched from their parents and saved from the Nazi terror just before the war broke out. Now stunningly—impossibly—it appears that someone from that long-lost past may have returned.

Trauma and Attachment in the Kindertransport Context: German-Jewish Child Refugees’ Accounts of Displacement and Acculturation in Great Britain

by Guske, Iris (2009); Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The present volume is the result of an interdisciplinary oral history research project, which was carried out at the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Sussex. While each Holocaust survivor’s developmental story is unique, it is, however, linked to the others’ by the common experience of negotiating an identity between two countries, cultures, and religions against the background of unparalleled political upheavals, and as such also sheds light on, and offers ways out of, the traumata suffered in present-day contexts of enforced migration and displacement.

Turning the Key

by Kramer, Lotte (2009); Published by Rockingham Press

Lotte Kramer has been described as a “Holocaust poet” and it is true that she writes feelingly about the family and friends she left behind when she came to Britain in 1939 in the Kindertransport. But her canvas is much broader. She writes about the landscapes of modern Europe, about the Fen Country where she now lives and about paintings and literature. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center

Unfulfilled Promise – Rescue and Resettlement of Jewish Refugee Children in the United States 1934-1935

by Baumel, Judith Tydor (1990); Published by Juneau, AK: Denali Press

A scholarly book by the author of two theses on the Kindertransport movement. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Uprooted and Replanted: The Memoir of Helmut Heckscher from Hamburg to the Kindertransport to America

by Heckscher, Helmut (2017); Published by Xlibris

In this lively memoir, Helmut shares his experiences and adventures, starting with his childhood growing up as a Jew in Nazi Germany and his escape to the UK with the Kindertransport. He writes of working in a factory in England, his interment at the start of World War II, and nights in the subways of London during the Blitz. Helmut eventually reunited with his parents in Wisconsin, then was drafted into the Army. With a lively voice, Helmut tells the story of his remarkable life, and paints a picture of a refugee becoming an American in the 20th Century.

Verfolgung, Flucht, Rettung (Persecution, Flight, Rescue): Die Kindertransportet 1938/39 nach Grossbritannien

by Curio, Claudia (2006); Published by The Zentrum fuer Antisemitismusforschung of the Technische Universitaet Berlin

In this book, her doctoral dissertation, Claudia Curio delves into the question of why for so long pre-WWII emigration studies tended to overlook the Kindertransport experience in contrast to the attention given to the Youth Alijah. Through use of well documented case studies and extensive analysis Curio provides raises many issues of intimate concern to Kinder, and which, as she skillfully shows, had lasting influence on their lives. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Vienna and Its Jews: The Tragedy of Success: 1880s – 1980s

by Berkley, George E. (1988); Published by Lanham, Maryland: Madison Books

Traces the history of the Jewish community in Vienna, assesses the extent of Austrian anti-Semitism, and explains why the Jews were so fond of pre-World War I Vienna. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

War Story

by Edelman, Gwen (2001); Published by New York: Penguin Putnam

We Came as Children: A Collective Autobiography

by Gershon, Karen (1966); Published by New York: Harcourt Brace and World

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport

by Hopkinson, Deborah (2020); Published by Scholastic Focus

Ruth David was growing up in a small village in Germany when Adolf Hitler rose to power in the 1930s. Under the Nazi Party, Jewish families like Ruth’s experienced rising anti-Semitic restrictions and attacks. Just going to school became dangerous. By November 1938, anti-Semitism erupted into Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, and unleashed a wave of violence and arrests.

We Were Children Just Like You

by Eliach, Yaffa (1990); Published by Brooklyn, NY: Center for Holocaust Studies and Documentation

May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

What Happened to the Children Who Fled Nazi Persecution?

by Sonnert, Gerhard and Holton, Gerald (2006); Published by New York, Palgrave Macmillan

This book aims to create a collective biography of Jewish young people who were born in Germany or Austria between 1918 and 1935 and fled to the United States. It endeavors to present a statistical picture as well as to capture personal experiences based on a five-year, in-depth study. One of the book’s aims is to provide readers with information to influence the view of immigrant newcomers in the United States today.

When Time Ran Out: Coming of Age in the Third Reich

by Zeller, Frederic (1989); Published by Sag Harbor, New York: Permanent Press

Frederic Zeller’s story of his childhood in Berlin and escape to Holland, where he joined a Kindertransport. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History

by Epstein, Helen (1997); Published by Boston: Little, Brown

A memoir of the lives of Epstein’s mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. May be out of print. Try your local library or Holocaust Memorial Center.

Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust

by London, Louise (2000); Published by Cambridge University Press

Whitehall and the Jews is the fullest study yet of the British response to European Jewry under the Nazis, and the first detailed account of British immigration policy toward refugee Jews. The British government always put self-interest first and sought to avoid long-term responsibility for large numbers of homeless Jews. Nonetheless, aided by the sympathy of certain officials and ministers, many Jews obtained refuge, albeit subject to severe restrictions.

Without Let or Hindrance

by Charin, Geoffrey (2021); Published by Book Guild

It’s the summer of 1938 and Veronica and her fascist boyfriend Billy attend a pro-German event hosted by the 5th Duke of Wellington. Amid the evening’s glamour and fervour, Veronica meets Sir Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford, who invite her on a trip to Berlin. All over Europe, evil triumphs as good men do nothing, but for Veronica, doing nothing is no longer an option. As Europe edges towards war and the Nazis prepare to unleash the Kristallnacht pogrom on Germany’s Jews, the British government juggles appeasing Hitler with growing pressure to accept Jewish refugees. Veronica finds herself entering into a high-risk world of deadly intrigue and high-level political conspiracy to place herself at the very heart of darkness: Berlin under the Nazis.

Wounds Into Wisdom

by Firestone, Rabbi Tirzah (2019); Published by Monkfish Book Publishing

Our past does not simply disappear. The painful history of our ancestors and their rich cultural wisdom intertwine within us to create the patterns of our future. Even when past trauma remains unspoken or has long been forgotten, it becomes part of us and our children―a legacy of both strength and woundedness that shapes our lives.